Vic tourism strategy needs work: auditor

A 10-YEAR strategy to increase tourism in Victoria has not performed as well as expected due to poor co-ordination between government departments.

Victoria's Auditor-General John Doyle analysed the tourism and events industry strategy launched in 2006 to determine how effective it had been in improving visits to the state.

He found Tourism Victoria had improved branding and marketing, but cross-government initiatives had not been well co-ordinated.

"I am concerned at the lack of or slow progress in those areas requiring effective cross-government action, such as infrastructure development, helping to improve industry skills and service standards and developing tourist destinations in regional Victoria," he said in his report, released on Thursday.

Mr Doyle said the strategy did not have mechanisms or plans to clarify how the government agencies would work together.

Tourism visits and spending had outperformed NSW and Queensland since 2006, but it was not clear if those improvements could be attributed to the 2006 tourism strategy, he said.

Mr Doyle said more work was needed between government agencies to realise the outcomes of the subsequent 2020 Tourism Strategy, released in July this year.

He makes five recommendations, including ensuring a whole-of-government approach to implementing the latest tourism strategy.

However, he criticised Tourism Victoria for only partially accepting two of the recommendations.